Lucerne pleasures

After my two teenage sons and I took the wonderful “Rhine Getaway” cruise from Viking River Cruises in June ’10, we took the train in Switzerland from Basel to Lucerne for a two-night stay.

We stayed at Hotel des Alpes Luzern (Furrengasse 3, CH-6004 Luzern; phone +41 [0] 41 417 20 60), just over the bridge from the train station. It’s in the Old Town and we walked everywhere.

It cost CHF600 (near $627) for a triple for two nights, including breakfast. (Single rooms from CHF130, doubles from CHF180.) Our comfortable room had a large balcony overlooking the lake.

A short walk from the hotel, I ate at the wonderful Restaurant Bar Martini-Stube (Hirschenplatz 2; phone 41 410 51 50), as I had in my college days, and the fondue was just as great as I remembered. Meals run around CHF10 to CHF13 ($10.50-$13).

An unexpected gem we found in Lucerne — the discount watch store Eva Gloor-Zwingli (Im Zöpfli 1 [Kramstrasse]; phone 041 410 52 50), near our hotel and close to the smaller medieval wooden bridge. The owner had a bargain bin of lovely watches for CHF28 ($29) each. He pointed out the ones made in Switzerland, because there were a few Chinese ones as well. I bought a watch for CHF98. We ended up with four Swiss-made watches for a total of CHF185 — a fantastic deal!

The Verkehrshaus, or Swiss Museum of Transport (Lidostrasse 5; phone 41 370 44 44), was entertaining for all ages, and there was a nice choice of three different cafés inside. We enjoyed our lunch and lattes there. Open all year, 10-6 summer, 10-5 winter. CHF28 adult; CHF14 child (6-16), and under six, free.

From the transport museum, it was easy catching the train to the Zürich airport for our departure.

NANCI SCHEITHAUER

Santa Fe, NM